The number of Clark County homes in foreclosure fell dramatically in March, revealing a more compassionate side of the mortgage industry.
March
2011 …… 272
2010 …… 334
2009 ….. 605
2008 ….. 234
2007 ….. 70
Source: RealtyTrac Inc.
Some say the sector’s new willingness to help borrowers with home-loan modifications led to the 29.2 percent one-month drop in local foreclosures, as reported by California-based RealtyTrac on Wednesday. In Clark County, there were 272 houses in some stage of foreclosure in March, down from February’s 384 foreclosures and 18.6 percent less than March 2010.
Others say banks are slower to foreclose because they don’t want to own still more properties when it is taking longer now to sell off houses in distress, given the smaller pool of qualified buyers. Shrinking demand has caused lenders to work longer with existing homeowners in Clark County, which ranked third-highest out of Washington’s 39 counties for its rate of foreclosure.
Only Pierce and Snohomish counties ranked worse than Clark County, where one out of every 601 homes was in foreclosure in March. In February, one of every 426 houses was in some stage of foreclosure in Clark County, which earned it the No. 2 spot.
Lenders “are making a greater effort to try to modify these loans,” said Scott Anthony, a broker in charge of the real estate owned division of Windermere Real Estate Stellar Group in Vancouver.
Many of the mortgage giants started beefing up efforts to help struggling homeowners last fall, after claims surfaced that banks had mishandled thousands of foreclosures nationwide with rubber-stamp “robo signing.” The revelation launched investigations by all 50 state attorneys general, causing banks to slow down the process.
Tom Unger, a Portland-based spokesman for Wells Fargo, said Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is sending its team of home preservation specialists from city to city to hold workshops for struggling borrowers. The company’s recent workshop in Portland drew 393 struggling homeowners.
At the same time, fewer people are buying up bank-owned foreclosures, thanks to the still-sluggish economy and heightened credit requirements for borrowers.
“It comes down to who has the money, who has the cash, and who can get the loan,” Anthony said.
He also attributed the drop in Clark County’s total foreclosures to occupants who refuse to move out of distressed properties, holding out for the relocation fees offered by many banks.
“The banks will actually offer them cash to move out,” as long as the occupants don’t leave damage behind, Anthony said.
Anthony, who has sold more than 270 bank-owned foreclosures since 2009, has also seen some troubled homeowners plan out their homes’ foreclosure. He said the strategy occurs more among Clark County homeowners who are hopelessly underwater, which means they owe more on their mortgage balances than the home is worth. About 32 percent of homeowners in the Portland-Vancouver metro area were underwater in 2010, according to Seattle-based Zillow.
Nevertheless, Anthony and other real estate experts foresee the foreclosure market’s recovery within the next couple of years.
“I think we’ve bottomed out. We’ll stay that way for some time and start our slow increase,” Anthony said.
Others expect county foreclosures to increase in September, when interest rates will bump up on a crop of adjustable-rate mortgages issued during the height of the housing boom, said Terry Wollam, an agent with Re/Max Equity Group and president of the Clark County Association of Realtors.
“We are going to continue to see those through September,” Wollam said. “After that, it’s just going to be a matter of working through that inventory.”
